It is possible that various software data (hereinafter, referred to as “content”) such as audio data of music etc., image data of movies etc., game programs, and various application programs etc. are stored in a recording medium, such as a Blu-ray Disc, to which Blue laser is applied, or DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), MD (Mini Disc), CD (Compact Disc) as digital data. In particular, Blu-ray disc utilizing blue laser is a disc capable of high density recording, in which large capacity video content etc. can be recorded as high definition data.
Such information recording media (recording media) include those having a multilayer structure for storing higher capacity data. For example, there is one having a record data storage area composed of two layers, an upper layer and a lower layer, in a single disc, and data of either layer is selectively played back and data recording is performed, in accordance with focus control of a pick-up.
At the time of playing back content stored in a disc-type information recording medium, there is a case where playback is performed after a jump processing to a position away from a certain data playback position of the disc.
The processing of reading and playing back the content stored in the disc follows procedure steps of:
an acquisition of information from the disc;
a temporary storing (buffering) of acquired information;
a decoding of buffer data; and
an output of decoded data.
The decoding of the buffer data includes a processing such as the decoding of MPEG data if the content is in the form of the MPEG data, or the decoding of encrypted data if the encrypted data is given, for instance.
If a jump processing occurs in a single-layer disc or a multi-layer disc, time is required for performing the jump processing to a position away from a certain data playback position and reading and playing back data from a next read position. If the time is long, playback break may occur.
In a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) as the disc-type recording medium, a data recording configuration is defined for enabling playback processing without break even in a case of occurrence of a jump in a single recording layer.
However, current DVD standards only define content allocation for guaranteeing seamless playback in a case of occurrence of an intra-layer jump processing within a single layer even in a case of having a multilayer recording structure, and does not take into account playback break in a case of occurrence of an inter-layer jump.
In a case where content over a plurality of layers is stored on such a multilayer type disc, content playback and recording is carried out so that a scene with a whole screen being black and having no sound is allocated at a point switching from the first layer and the second layer so as to avoid giving unnatural impression to a user at a portion incapable of seamless playback.